Mobile App Trends that Feed Business Innovation

When you’re a mobile app developer, it’s easy to keep your head down, focused single-mindedly on the task at hand in order to meet deadlines. While that’s often necessary, it can also be problematic, because it means that developers may miss spending time tracking the trends that can lead to business innovation and digital transformation.

The first on the list is the use of cloud back ends for mobile apps. Why is this so important for mobile development? Primarily, the article writes, is because it “frees mobile users from some traditional end-point security and infrastructure concerns.” The article adds, “Digital transformation has become a driver for migrating to the cloud, with mobile apps becoming the new front end to legacy apps. There are a lot of decisions to make around workloads, storage, security and other concerns, just like with other cloud migrations. Likewise, mobile app startups benefit from economies of scale by putting their mobile app back ends in the cloud.”

The next trend is making sure to provide a superior mobile experience. The article says, “A move to mobile apps sets user expectations that they’ll get the same level of user experience (UX) with corporate apps that they get with the apps they use on their own personal devices. Mobile experience becomes a key imperative for engaging with users.”

The third important trend is the use of augmented reality in the enterprise. This is important for everything from visualizing and rendering information to letting field salespeople “render a 3-D model of a piece of equipment for a customer rather than bringing such hardware on sales calls.”

Next on the list is the rise of mobile APIs. This makes it easier for mobile developers to connect mobile apps to back-end corporate data. Another important trend, the article says, is applying DevOps principles to the mobile development process. The article notes, “The mobile DevOps trend means app development needs to be aligned closer with the business than ever before because it requires business and technology decisions to come together in order to deliver mobile apps that satisfy the user community.”

The final important trend is using collaboration to improve the customer experience. Here’s why, according to the article: “It’s no longer about mobile developers building an app and tossing it out to users. Instead, mobile app developers need to be able to collaborate effectively with business stakeholders, product managers, UX designers and other team members to develop and launch a mobile app.”

What’s the Best Tool to Help Developers Spur Business Innovation?

Alpha Anywhere offers mobile developers tools to help spur business innovation. For example, it works with the Alpha Cloud, which takes care of installing and maintaining server software needed to run your Alpha Anywhere applications, allowing you to focus on building your business applications. Your servers are managed and managed for you, so you can easily create testing and demo environments, and easily deploy multiple applications to multiple versions of Alpha Anywhere. The result: Peace of mind, less cost, less work and more scalability, allowing you to focus on building applications rather than managing infrastructure.

Alpha TransForm technology can speed up enterprise digital transformation by bridging the IT/line of business divide. It enables savvy business domain experts and IT departments to work together to quickly and effectively digitize business processes and deliver tangible business impact. It lets line-of-business experts build mobile apps using their insight regarding workflow needs and efficiencies, while simultaneously enabling IT to control data integration with systems of record, and data security compliance.

When needed, Alpha Anywhere offers experienced developers tools to help spur business innovation. For example, it works with Alpha Cloud, which takes care of installing and maintaining server software needed to run your Alpha Anywhere applications, allowing you to focus on building your business applications. Your servers are managed and managed for you, so you can easily create testing and demo environments, and easily deploy multiple applications to multiple versions of Alpha Anywhere. The result: Peace of mind, less cost, less work and more scalability, allowing you to focus on building applications rather than managing infrastructure.

About Author

Amy Groden-Morrison

Amy Groden-Morrison has served more than 15 years in marketing communications leadership roles at companies such as TIBCO Software, RSA Security and Ziff-Davis. Most recently she was responsible for developing marketing programs that helped achieve 30%+ annual growth rate for analytics products at a $1Bil, NASDAQ-listed business integration Software Company. Her past accomplishments include establishing the first co-branded technology program with CNN, launching an events company on the NYSE, rebranding a NASDAQ-listed company amid a crisis, and positioning and marketing a Boston-area startup for successful acquisition. Amy currently serves as a Healthbox Accelerator Program Mentor, Marketing Committee Lead for the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge Launch Smart Clinics, and on the organizing team for Boston TechJam. She holds an MBA from Northeastern University.